I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Laramie, Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES— an exhibition entitled Witness To Wartime: The Painted Diary Of Takuichi Fujii— drawings and watercolors of the Japanese internment camps in the West during WW-II that he and his family were kept — will be at the Missoula, Montana Museum of Art to December 19th.
YOUR WEEKEND READ #1 is this essay by Rebecca Solnit on the Republicans who now express rage over Trump-inspired violence … when it is aimed at them.
CHEERS to a cover story/editorial in the new issue of The Economist entitled, Time to make Coal History— calling it the the “toxic heart of the fossil-fuel economy” and concluding with, “Coal’s days are numbered. The sooner it is consigned to museums and history books, the better”.
THURSDAY's CHILDREN are named Rehoboth, Lewes, and Bethany the Cats— three kittens at the largest shelter in D.C., where the proprietors hope that (by naming them after Delaware beaches) the incoming Biden family will adopt one, when they become adoptable right around …… Inauguration Day.
YOUR WEEKEND READ #2 is from Outside magazine entitled The Long-Lasting Mental Health Effects of Wildfires— that those who survive are never the same.
THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a look at cat memes— actually just two: A Cat Named Bitches and Smudge the Cat.
ATTENTION HOLIDAY SHOPPERS— your faithful correspondent presents his annual public-service announcement … of this gift for that special-someone …. a calendar with some new faces this year(!)
JAZZ RADIO STATIONS around the world commemorated the 100th birthday anniversary today of the pianist Dave Brubeck— who died in 2012, just one day before his 92nd birthday.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Kiki the Cat— an English kitteh who went missing seven years ago, then reunited (after brought in as a stray) via her microchip.
BRAIN TEASER— try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC ...… and the usually easier, less UK-centered New York Times quiz (no common questions).
SEPARATED at BIRTH— an Academy Award winner …. and a former boyfriend of Maria Butina (who is also a Trumper convinced of the DeepState).
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… although it was written by Joni Mitchell: each year at this time, I feature the man who popularized it and — according to Rolling Stone— ushered in the singer/songwriter era.“I wasn’t sure if they were crediting me or accusing me,” he remarked.
Say what you will, Tom Rush gets around. He was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, came-of-age in Massachusetts, made his mark at the Boston/Cambridge coffeehouses of the early 1960's, has lived in the Rockies and the West Coast, then Vermont, now back in Massachusetts and who-knows-where tomorrow (as he counts having moved twenty-six times).
As Steve Leggett of the All-Music Guide puts it, “Rush's warm and slightly world-weary baritone” has a way of growing on you, and he was one of the first performers to feature works by Jackson Browne and others when they were just beginning. Garth Brooks has cited him as an influence, with James Taylor going so far as to say, "I took as much from Tom Rush as possible and unwittingly modeled myself on him. Like a lot of people who do what I do, I owe my career to him".
For a few years, Tom Rush has had an album of humorous tunes Trolling for Owls - which he notes is "not available in stores!" And one of them - The Remember Song - has received in excess of 7.3 million hits on YouTube. After being told it had gone viral he wrote, "I thought I was being accused of being a musical equivalent of Ebola ......... but my children explained to me ... that this was a good thing".
And for several years, The Very Best of Tom Rush has provided listeners with his classic songs. But it wasn't until 2009 that he released What I Know— which was his first new studio recording in 35 years— because as he explained, "I don't like to rush headlong into these things".
In 2018, he released the album Voices— with some traditional tunes as well as several new songs— of which he says, “There are very few labels that are just content to put out good music and make a reasonable profit at it. Appleseed Recordings, the label I’m on, is one of them, and I’m very thankful to be working with them.”
This marks the 58th anniversary of the career of Tom Rush and — at age 79 — is still quite active. In 2012 he recorded What's Wrong with America?— a spoof of Mitt Romney's notorious “47%” comments. He performs in a lot of college towns and — without mentioning you-know-who by name — said a few years ago:
In terms of the politics, I try to create kind of a little oasis from the problems of the world. So I don’t tend to get political, because I really don’t want to remind people of how much things suck. I’d rather give them a little holiday from all the turmoil.
On the other hand, there are times when I just can’t help myself and have to comment on something. I’ve been saying lately there are aspects of the recent election cycle that make you realize we really have to spend more on education. You can make of that what you will.
For many years he performed an annual show in Boston's Symphony Hall in December. After having to cut-short his “First Annual Farewell Tour” this year — he’ll perform a mixed concert this month in Fall River, Massachusetts— with limited seating, plus live-streaming. Then in the new year he’ll be appearing with other stars (such as Leo Kottke, Jesse Colin Young and even the band America).
That Joni Mitchell song that Tom Rush helped to popularize: is her 1966 tune Urge for Going - about the oncoming Canadian winter (which she did not release on an album until 1972). Below you can hear Tom Rush sing it (with the accent guitar of the late Bruce Langhorne that, to me: truly makes this version special).
I awoke today and found the frost perched on the town It hovered in a frozen sky then it gobbled summer down When the sun turns traitor cold and all the trees are shivering in a naked row I get the urge for going ... but I never seem to goNow the warriors of winter give a cold triumphant shout And all that stays is dying and all that lives is getting out See the geese in chevron flight flapping and racing on before the snow They got the urge for going and they've got the wings to go
And they get the urge for going when the meadow grass is turning brown Summertime is falling down Winter's closing in